GTMF Offers Six Nights of Exhilarating Musical Experiences

The Grand Teton Music Festival’s expanded summer lineup continues with eight events this week. Headlining the week’s performances are appearances by Ben Sollee, Maja Bogdanović, and the Festival Orchestra. A new weekly series at the Festival – Movies on the Mountain – also launches this week.

1980s family classic E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial opens Movies on the Mountain, on Monday, July 10 at 7PM. In this beloved Steven Spielberg film, brother and sister Elliot and Gertie assist a gentle alien stranded on Earth. The film is free, but ticketed. Complete your movie screening experience with popcorn and candy at the concessions counter! Movies on the Mountain is the Festival’s newest series and is intended to provide family entertainment. This year’s lineup is inspired by the total solar eclipse.

The popular Inside the Music series begins on Tuesday, July 11 at 8PM with a program exploring minimalism through the lens of American composers. Minimalism began in the 1940s as a west coast reaction to the abundance of atonal compositions. Hosted by Festival Musicians Stephanie Key, clarinet, and David Mollenauer, cello, Inside the Music: American Minimalism is a one-hour program including conversation and questions from the audience. Free, but a ticket is required.

On Wednesday July 12, GTMF presents cellist Ben Sollee at the Pink Garter Theatre in Jackson at 8PM. Soulful singer and bluegrass-inspired, multi-talented Ben Sollee returns for what promises to be a moving and eclectic summer evening in Jackson.

Cellist Maja Bogdanović stars in a Chamber Music performance on Thursday, July 13 at 8PM. This not-to-be-missed program includes Copland’s iconic Appalachian Spring in its original version for thirteen instruments. Rachmaninoff’s lush sonata for cello performed by Bogdanović and pianist Jason Hardink will cap off the evening.

Bogdanović makes her Festival Orchestra debut with the ebullient Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 on Friday, July 14 at 8PM and Saturday, July 15 at 6PM. Maestro Cristian Măcelaru returns to the podium to lead the Festival Orchestra in Prokofiev’s masterful take on Romeo and Juliet as well as Romanian Rhapsody, a work by Mr. Măcelaru’s fellow countryman George Enescu. The Festival Orchestra opens their Friday rehearsal to the public at 10AM on July 14. Experience a working session in which Maestro Măcelaru creates and shapes the weekend’s Festival Orchestra concerts.

Our weekly family concert is Saturday, July 15 at 11am. Children have an opportunity to get up-close with the cello and enjoy music suited for young ones when cellist Maja Bogdanović continues her weeklong residency. This free event is also ticketed.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit gtmf.org or call the GTMF ticket line at 307.733.1128.

About the Grand Teton Music Festival (GTMF): For seven weeks each summer, the Grand Teton Music Festival reunites 200 celebrated orchestral musicians. These musicians represent 82 different orchestras and 57 institutions of higher learning throughout Europe and North America. In total, the Festival presents 60 events during its summer season. Throughout the winter, GTMF provides various community outreach programs, a Winter Festival in January, as well as broadcasts from The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series. The Grand Teton Music Festival is the single largest presenter of performing arts events in Jackson Hole, presenting nearly 100 events annually.